


don't you wanna dance?

by inimitabler



Category: Glee
Genre: F/F, Feelings ensue, Fluff, One Shot, Rachel is Rachel, dance, quinns a dancer, they're gay for each other and it's cute
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-17
Updated: 2019-07-17
Packaged: 2020-06-30 09:58:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,579
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19850788
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/inimitabler/pseuds/inimitabler
Summary: When Quinn Fabray started taking dance classes the summer after sophomore year, she had only hoped to lose her pregnancy weight and get back into shape. What she hadn't expected was to fall in love with the art. And, even more, she hadn't expected to see Rachel Berry there.





	don't you wanna dance?

**Author's Note:**

> I've never taken dance classes, so forgive me.
> 
> (Yes, this is a reupload from another series I have. I am uploading all of these fics as their own works.)
> 
> (Also, I wrote this a long time ago, and it's not great, but I want it out there regardless.)

_I've been in love and I've lost my senses,_  
_Spinning through the town,_  
_Sooner or later the fever ends,_  
_And I wind up feeling down._

Quinn walked into her biweekly dance class and began doing her stretches. It wasn't until she finished that she noticed the new addition to her class. She couldn't believe what she was seeing.

In the center of the room, poised and confident as ever, was Rachel Berry. Rachel Berry, who was currently engaged in a conversation with the rest of the girls and few boys in the class. Rachel Berry, whose bag was in the corner with the rest, and Quinn only knew it as hers because of the large gold star on the side of it. Rachel Berry, who had spotted the blonde, and was now walking towards her.

"Hello, Quinn! I did not expect to see you, but it's a pleasure, nonetheless."

Quinn carried on with her stretches, not making eye contact with the brunette. "Berry, what are you doing here?"

"Is it not obvious? I take dance lessons here now, rather than with my old company." Rachel spoke while changing into her ballet slippers.

"And why is that?"

Rachel was about to respond, when their dance instructor called out for their attention. She walked towards the forming group, Quinn following not too far behind.

"Listen up. If you didn't notice already, we have a new student, Rachel." The young instructor, Alison, gestured towards the aforementioned girl. "Unfortunately, we're starting a new number today, so we'll have to catch her up some other time. This dance is going to be done mainly in partners, so everyone partner up."

The girls and boys easily got into pairs, which left Rachel and Quinn standing by themselves. The former gladly stepped over to stand next to the latter.

"This will be a typical, slower dance for each pair. There will be a few difficult lifts in it. Boys, you will perform the lifts, and girls that are in pairs, you will have to decide who will do them. Let's start off with something easy." Alison explained. She demonstrated a simple move with one of the boys. Everyone began practicing the move with their partners.

"I guess I'll be leading." Quinn muttered, much to her chagrin. "Care to fill me in on why you switched dance companies?"

Rachel grinned, delighted that the ex-cheerleader was making conversation. "Similar to Glee club, they didn't appreciate my talent. No one in my class put a lot of effort into their routines. I heard that this studio was much more advanced and had much more dedicated performers than my old one."

Quinn was silent, so the diva continued. "Why are you here? I never knew you took ballet."

"I like to dance." Quinn replied. Short and simple. It was a defense technique, Rachel noticed.

"Hmm, okay. You know, the other girls said that you're very talented. Best dancer here." Rachel smiled at the flush that appeared on the girl's cheeks. "How come you never say anything about it in Glee?"

"I'm not nearly as good as Brittany or Mike. Besides, there hasn't really been an opportunity. All I've taken is ballet and we'd never get any of the guys to agree to that for a competition, so there was no point."

The girls transitioned into basic moves, showing each other what they could do and possibly work into the routine.

"That's nonsense, Quinn."

"It's not nonsense. It's all true."

"No, it isn't true. You're a great dancer and singer." Rachel did a double pirouette, gesturing for Quinn to do the same. "I would be more than willing to help you with something to perform in Glee, you know, as long as you didn't upstage me."

The taller girl stared at Rachel for a second, before mumbling, honestly. "I could never upstage you."

Rachel instantly blushed and watched Quinn glide around the room. She had a certain delicacy about her; the way she moved so gracefully and swiftly when she danced. Rachel was intrigued by it.

The other pairs stopped to watch Quinn as well. The dance instructor had a subtle smile on her face as the blonde maneuvered across the floor. It didn't take too long for Quinn to notice everyone's attention on her and she stopped, cheeks red, and returned to Rachel's side.

"I think you just did." Rachel grinned.

Suddenly, Quinn took Rachel's hand and spun her around twice, letting go as she twirled the second time. "Think you can keep up, Berry?"

"Try me."

The two girls proceeded to dance together, Quinn leading, and had the most fun they'd had in a while. They improvised off of each other flawlessly; to anyone else it would have seemed like a choreographed number. Their chemistry was undeniable (to everyone but the girls themselves).

Rachel loved dancing with Quinn. She loved waiting in anticipation to see which way the girl would move next, or laughing giddily when Quinn might mistakenly falter in her movements. In Finn, Puck, or even Jesse, these things might bother her, but with Quinn, they were just plain adorable.

Class ended and everyone left, leaving Quinn, who had just dipped Rachel. The brunette found herself staring into captivating hazel eyes, which were filled with an emotion she couldn't quite identify. Quinn immediately lifted her back up, releasing her and running a hand through her hair. She raced to start packing her belongings up.

"Hey, Quinn?" Rachel couldn't stop herself from asking.

She muttered, changing into her tennis shoes, "Yeah?"

"I was wondering if you might be able to stay after school one day this week to help me catch up on some of the dances? I-I realize that you may have other plans or you may just be uninterested, but I would truly appreciate it if you-"

"If it saves me from a lecture on how you might fall behind in class and your future career will be ruined, then, sure." Quinn met her eyes, briefly, and then left the room.

As Rachel packed up her things, she was certain of two things.

Quinn Fabray was gorgeous, and Rachel was falling for her.

...

Rachel knew this was a bad idea from the moment Quinn walked into the auditorium that afternoon. She had been a nervous wreck for the past two days, wondering how this would go and if Quinn would even show up. She sighed in relief when the aforementioned girl walked through the side entrance to the auditorium and made her way up the stairs.

"Sorry I'm late. Coach Sylvester wanted to speak to me about something." She apologized.

"No, that's okay." Rachel was practically shaking with anxiety. "So, you're-um, you're rejoining the Cheerios?"

"God, no," Quinn laughed at the idea, which puzzled Rachel. "She talked to me about joining again, and, as tempted as I was, I decided not to. I loved the status and the HBIC role, but I don't want to go back to the head space I was in last year. Worrying about everything I eat, everything I say; it was too much stress."

"Oh," Rachel was speechless. "I-I never realized how much energy that must have taken."

Quinn ignored her comment and changed into her ballet slippers, starting to stretch. Rachel quickly followed suit, making sure to take a mental note of the other girl's warm-up techniques.

After warming up, the girls wasted no time and hopped right into it. Quinn began to teach Rachel some of the dances and, within an hour, Rachel had mastered almost all of them. Quinn was shocked by how easily Rachel learned things; how she could watch Quinn perform a move and replicate it within seconds. There were still a few kinks here and there but, overall, Rachel had accomplished a lot more than Quinn had expected.

They switched to working on the duet they had previously been working on in class. The girls practiced different types of lifts, as they would need to get comfortable with each other to be able to do them.

At the end of one particular dance to a song Quinn had randomly selected from her phone, Quinn caught Rachel off-guard and lifted the smaller girl up in front of herself as high as she could and held her there. Slowly, the blonde brought Rachel down, her back pressed to Quinn's front.

Rachel could feel Quinn's heart pounding in her chest, and she gradually turned her head around, seeing Quinn's face, not even inches away from hers. Quinn's eyes drifted down to Rachel's lips, then shot back up to her eyes. Beads of sweat were dripping down both of their faces, caused by exhaustion from dancing.

Rachel glanced down at Quinn's mouth, and, suddenly, said mouth was on hers. She immediately registered the feeling of soft lips gently caressing her own, which brought indescribable pleasure to both girls. Rachel tilted her head to get a better angle and parted her lips to match Quinn's kisses. The taller girl inhaled deeply through her nose, and Rachel could swear she heard the tiniest of moans come from her. Quinn's hands remained stubbornly at her hips, but just as Rachel twisted to wrap her arms around her neck, the blonde pulled away.

Quinn took a step backwards and stared at Rachel, who was nervously chewing on her bottom lip. That instantly drew Quinn's attention back to Rachel's lips and she shook her head rapidly, before stumbling over her next few words.

"I-I'm sorry, I can't… I-" Quinn cut herself off, turned to grab her bags, and ran out of the auditorium.

"Quinn, wait!" Rachel called, but she had already left.

...

Rachel pulled into Quinn's driveway and noticed that only Quinn's car was there, which meant that her mom wasn't home yet. She hurriedly left her car and ran up to the door, but stopped there. Waves of apprehension hit her all at once. What if Quinn didn't want her there? She obviously ran away for a reason.

The brunette's desire for Quinn overcame her fears, and she raised her hand to ring the doorbell, just as the door opened. Behind it stood a tear-stained Quinn with unkempt hair and an unidentifiable gleam in her eyes.

"Berry, what are you doing here?" Quinn asked defensively, attempting to tame her disheveled hair.

"I… I wanted to see you," Rachel inwardly cringed at how cheesy that must have sounded. "May I come in?"

Quinn didn't say anything, just opened the door wider and stepped aside. Rachel entered the home and was flabbergasted by the lack of family photographs and mementos that her own home was filled with. The house just looked so bland. However, she realized that was not the reason why she was here and turned to face Quinn, who looked nervous.

Rachel spoke quietly and gently. "Hey, I just want to talk about a few things, okay? That's it. Would that be alright with you?"

Quinn, once again, said nothing, but grabbed Rachel's hand and led her up the stairs and into a bedroom, which Rachel assumed to be Quinn's. The diva immediately spotted a keyboard in the corner of the room, along with a guitar hanging on the wall.

"You play guitar and piano?" Rachel wondered excitedly, grinning brighter than the sun.

The blonde replied nonchalantly, "I took piano lessons for a few years when I was younger, and I've just been teaching myself a few things since then. I'd always wanted to learn guitar, but my father never let me. When I lived with Puck last year, he taught me a few chords on the guitar, and my mom bought me an acoustic when I moved back in as sort of an apology for everything last year. I've been teaching myself since that happened. I'm not very good, though."

Rachel was always surprised by Quinn's humility, considering their past. "I'm sure you're amazing at both. Could you play something for me?" Rachel shyly requested.

Quinn silently debated her options in her head, before turning her keyboard on and sitting down in front of it. "Only if you sing along, Berry."

She began to play the opening notes to Just Give Me a Reason and Rachel smiled and started singing when the entrance came. She watched Quinn play the keyboard, how her fingers moved so elegantly, much like her body when she danced. God, was there anything this girl couldn't do?

Quinn surprised her when she sang the second verse instead of letting Rachel come in, and Rachel nearly melted at the sound of Quinn's soothing alto. They sang the chorus together and alternated lines during the bridge, as it is on the original track. Once the song was over, Rachel looked at Quinn, who was staring intently at the keyboard. She waited for a few moments, before letting out a frustrated sigh. The blonde immediately turned to her at the noise.

"Quinn, I can't stand this-this awkwardness and hesitation between us. We sang a very romantic song together and you kissed me earlier and I just despise not knowing where I stand with people, especially you." Rachel rambled, carefully observing Quinn's reactions. "Do you have feelings for me? Because I'm fairly sure that I have them for you and-"

Quinn interrupted, "Do you want to know why I joined dance?"

"You're avoiding my question!"

"No, it all relates. I promise. This is going to be long, so prepare yourself." Rachel nodded and Quinn continued to speak. "This summer, I really took time to learn things about myself. Things I didn't know and things I knew, but didn't want to accept. What I told you the other day was true; I do like to dance, but that's not the only reason I started taking classes. One of the things I learned this summer was that I need some sort of physical activity in my weekly schedule to blow off some steam. I wasn't a typically athletic child, but I realized that I was very fond of taking walks when I was younger to help me relieve some of my stress. That has now carried its way into my teenage years, except now it is sports. Without cheerleading, dance was the perfect way to do that.

"Another reason I joined was to lose the weight I had gained from my pregnancy. I won't get into it, but I'll just say that I had terribly low self-esteem after I gave birth and that led to one awful week of constant exercise, hardly one meal a day, and barely any sleep, until my mom noticed and had an intervention."

Rachel's heart ached at the thought of Quinn seeing herself as anything but perfect, and she spoke up about it. "Quinn, you are so beautiful and I'm so sorry that you can't see that as easily as I can."

The taller girl flushed and shook her head, before speaking. "The final reason that I started dance, which I didn't even know at the time and didn't truly realize until about a month ago, was the subconscious idea that it might impress you. I know it sounds stupid, and it probably is, but you've always been so astounding at singing and dancing. I thought that, since I knew I'd never be nearly as talented of a singer as you, if I could attempt to improve my dancing skills, you might notice and take more of an interest in me. It seems awful and completely conceited and I'm sorry that I treated you like-"

"No, stop, Quinn. It's okay and I find it entirely adorable that you would want to impress me. If we're being honest, I do find you incredibly attractive when you dance, or do anything you're passionate about." Rachel confessed, watching Quinn, yet again, turn all different shades of pink and red. The brunette smiled to herself and grabbed Quinn's hands, holding them tightly, sitting down on the seat next to her.

"About halfway through the summer, I ultimately accepted that I wasn't straight. That was probably the biggest thing I learned about myself this summer. Once I knew I wasn't straight, it took me a while to put a label to it, but I eventually acknowledged that I am gay. I came out to my mom a few weeks later and she was completely supportive of me, which surprised me beyond belief." Quinn paused to take a deep breath and looked Rachel straight in the eyes. "I don't really know how you feel about me, Rachel, but I like you. I have liked you since we met in freshman year when you complimented my shirt in English class on the first day of school. I am so, so, _so_ sorry for how I treated you the remainder of that year and during sophomore year. I have no excuses besides the fact that I was a closeted lesbian who was too scared to accept her own feelings and I took that out on you, which I had no right to do."

Rachel hesitated for a moment to reflect on what Quinn had just told her. She replied, "You are forgiven. I want you to know that while I was hurt by how you treated me, I can now understand why you were doing it. Also, I like you, too."

Quinn looked down bashfully, smiling to herself, and Rachel felt a wave of attraction hit her at Quinn's adorable expression. Rachel found her gaze drifting down to the blonde's lips and immediately blushed. Quinn noticed the diva's pink cheeks and watched Rachel's eyes with curiosity, as they slowly moved down to her lips, then shot straight back up. The brunette's blush only intensified when she realized that Quinn was watching her.

"I really want to kiss you." Rachel admitted, blatantly staring at her lips and evading her eyes.

Quinn licked her lips, feeling her heart beat faster in her chest. She gripped Rachel's hands tighter in her own and whispered, "Then do it."

Rachel leaned forward, tilted her head, and gently captured Quinn's bottom lip between her own. She kissed her hesitantly, as if she were afraid of rejection. Quinn complied for a few seconds, before releasing her lips, inhaling deeply, and fiercely reattaching her mouth to Rachel's. Rachel instantly moaned her approval and they kissed for a few more moments, both pulling back at the same time. The girls rested their foreheads against one another's and were gasping deeply for air.

Quinn took a deep breath and locked eyes with Rachel. "Go out with me?"

"Of course." Rachel smiled and kissed Quinn again. They kissed timidly and sweetly this time, until Quinn's bedroom door open and the girls froze.

"Quinnie, how was your-Oh, gosh, I'm sorry!" Judy Fabray grinned knowingly at the girls, who were now standing up with three feet between them. Rachel was mortified; her cheeks turned deep red and she stared at the ground. Quinn was embarrassed as well, but not nearly as much as Rachel was.

The younger blonde cleared her throat and spoke calmly, yet nervously, "Mom, this is Rachel Berry. Rachel, this is my mom, Judy."

The brunette stepped forward, slowly dragging her vision up from the floor to meet Judy's warm blue eyes and reached a hand out to Judy, which she took eagerly. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Ms. Fabray."

Judy replied sincerely, "You as well, Rachel. And it's Judy."

Quinn observed as her lively, animated Rachel became quiet and withdrawn around her mother. She knew Rachel would be bouncing off the walls right now if she could, because of all of her pent up energy from this whole exchange.

"Well, I'll get out of your hair now." Judy started to leave the room.

"Wait! Mom, I need to tell you something." Quinn glanced to Rachel for permission, who only nodded slightly. The former cheerleader grasped the brunette's smaller hand in her own, interlacing their fingers, and turned to lock eyes with her mother. "Rachel and I are dating."

Judy looked at the girls' hands excitedly and gushed, "Oh my, finally! I mean, um, that's great for you girls. And totally fine with me, Quinn."

"Could Rachel stay for dinner tonight?" Quinn asked, immediately receiving a nod from her mom. "If you want to, of course, Rachel."

"I would love to, but I'm a vegan. Would that be a problem?"

"Not at all." Judy assured. "Quinnie has informed me of this several times, when she sometimes just can't stop talking about you."

Rachel smirked and Quinn blushed to her ears at her mom's not-so-subtle teasing. Judy informed them that dinner should be ready in about an hour and left the room. At hearing the door close, both girls let out sighs that they were not aware they were holding in.

"Well, now that _that's_ over with…" Rachel began, meeting Quinn's confused gaze. "Can't stop talking about me, huh?"

Quinn flushed, before quickly composing herself and staring back at Rachel. "What can I say? You're pretty addictive."

It was Rachel's turn to blush and she watched curiously as Quinn plugged her phone into a small speaker system. A familiar, rhythmic song intro came out of the speakers and Rachel grinned as the blonde turned around, offering a hand out to the brunette.

"Dance with me?" Quinn asked playfully.

"I thought you'd never ask."

 _Oh, I wanna dance with somebody,_  
_I wanna feel the heat with somebody,_  
_Yeah, I wanna dance with somebody,_  
_With somebody who loves me._

**Author's Note:**

> Lyrics are from I Wanna Dance with Somebody by Whitney Houston, and the duet they sang was Just Give Me a Reason by P!ink feat. Nate Ruess, neither of which I own the rights to, nor do I own the rights to Glee or these characters.


End file.
